Would I need to have seen the first one to follow it?
I’m not sure how serious this question is, but no, not really. There are a few characters that return from that movie and a bit of backstory but it’s all recapped in this one.
There wasn’t even a fighting tournament in the first one – that happens in this one – so in retrospect the whole first movie feels like a glorified prologue for this one.
It does mean though that there isn’t much of Scorpion and Sub-Zero in this sequel as they were the focus of the first movie.
It was a serious question, though I realise it sounds a bit silly, as I’ve not seen the first but I understand it focused on some new character (Cole?) rather than the ones from the game.
That’s right. He also features here but not in such a leading capacity – this is more of an ensemble piece, although nominally I guess the leads of the movie are Johnny Cage (played by Karl Urban who does a decent if unremarkable job and plays it exactly how you’d expect) and Kitana, who gets a surprisingly decent story arc.
All the Cole stuff is explained in this movie to the extent that’s needed, and the plot of the first one doesn’t have a massive bearing on this sequel – everything that you’ll need to know is explained.
